28th September 2021

TO ALL LONDON UNDERGROUND MEMBERS

Dear Colleagues,

UNIFORM CLOTHING COMMITTEE FAILURES - LONDON UNDERGROUND

A report has been received from your Lead Officer in relation to the provision of staff uniforms, or lack thereof, by LUL.  With winter not very far away we are concerned that the current shortage of uniforms will only be exacerbated when the colder weather hits. Your representatives on the Uniform Committee as well as your lead officer have believe this issue requires escalation to a higher level as we cannot see how staff are going to cope if the situation continues.

In April we wrote to LUL highlighting a number of issues with new recruits not getting their full entitlement to uniform. They were mainly just being given 2 Polo shirts, 1 pair of trousers, no shoes and then basically told to go to their new areas and see what their local management could find them. The new shoes issue was eventually resolved but the uniform issues both for new recruits and existing staff still remains a major problem. It is an undeniable fact that the majority of orders for existing staff have been outstanding since last August.

In early May this year, Uniform Services advised us that for most sizes of uniform, they had little or no stock. We then wrote to the chair of the Uniform Clothing Committee asking for an ad hoc meeting to discuss, that was ignored twice so we wrote to the Director of Operations. After much toing and throwing eventually they agreed to a Director's meeting which our lead officer reports took place on 12th July 2021 but achieved nothing apart from the vague statement that our concerns would be taken very seriously.

In response to our questions, we were told that they would get further information at the next UCC meeting and that any further problems could be brought back to Directors level too. A further meeting took place on 16th July 2021 where some of our queries were answered. With regards to the process going forward, we asked for further information on a number of things to which they stated they would get back to us but only a couple of things were forwarded on since that meeting. We specifically asked for the numbers of new recruits who now have a full uniform. This has still never been answered. Your lead officer again wrote to the Director asking for a further meeting as a number of questions had still not been answered. He declined stating everything had been answered.

The fact remains the that huge numbers of new recruits and existing staff are still without uniform with no clear way forward. With winter now on the horizon we simply cannot see how staff are expected to cope.  Your National Executive Committee has considered this matter and is appalled that despite claiming to provide a world class service for a world class city, LUL are incapable of providing their uniformed staff with a pair of shoes or a jacket. We have therefore requested an urgent meeting takes place where we will expect LUL to explain how this situation will be rectified in a timely fashion.

I have written to the company requesting a meeting takes place at the earliest opportunity and will keep members informed of developments.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Lynch
General Secretary